Pricing note · September 2026

How much does a fractional CMO cost in Belgium?

In Belgium, fractional CMO and fractional marketing leadership typically runs €2,500 to €8,000 per month, depending on how many days a month you need. That compares with roughly €90k to €140k a year fully loaded for a senior full-time hire, and €5k to €15k a month for a traditional agency retainer.

Those are working ranges, not quotes. The spread inside each one comes from seniority, sector depth and how much execution sits inside the engagement. A fractional lead who has actually launched regulated products in your sector costs more than a generalist, and is usually still cheaper than a mis-hire.

The more useful question for most seed to Series B companies is not "what does it cost" but "how many senior days a month does my stage actually need." For a company between funding and its first dedicated marketing hire, the honest answer is usually two to eight. That is the window the fractional model is built for.

The four options

What the same budgetbuys you.

01
Hire a senior marketer full-time
Roughly €90k to €140k a year fully loaded, before tools and budget.
The right answer once marketing is a full-time, every-day function and the positioning is settled. Before that, you pay a senior salary for someone to spend their first quarter guessing.
02
A traditional agency
Commonly €5k to €15k a month, scoped around deliverables.
Strong on production capacity: campaigns, design, volume. Weaker on the senior judgment call about what your company should say and to whom, and rarely staffed with people who have run regulated science launches themselves.
03
A fractional marketing lead or fractional CMO
Typically €2.5k to €8k a month, depending on days per month.
Senior direction plus hands-on ownership, scaled to the hours your stage needs. You get the person who sets the plan and the person who ships it in one, at a fraction of the full-time cost. This is the model we run.
04
Do it yourself with AI tools
Tool spend of a few hundred euros a month, plus founder hours.
Real leverage for drafting and production, and we set teams up this way ourselves. The missing piece is not output, it is the decision about what to say, to whom, and what to measure. AI speeds up a settled strategy; it does not replace one.

How to decide

Match the spend to the stage, not the ambition.

Before a Series A, most science companies need positioning, one working commercial motion and honest measurement. That is a few senior days a month, not a department. Buying a department early does not make the story settle faster.

The signal to move from fractional to full-time is workload, not vanity: when senior marketing work fills most of a week, every week, and the plan is stable enough to hand to someone growing into it. A good fractional lead tells you when you have reached that point, because the engagement is designed to end.

If you are weighing this decision right now, a 30-minute intro call is the fastest way to size it. You will leave with an honest read on what your stage needs, whether or not we work together.

Next step

Size it on one call.

Thirty minutes, your company as the case. We will tell you plainly which of the four options fits your stage.

Book the intro call See the retainers